It’s raining now so I won’t see

Jupiter, Venus, and Mars.

They were to be in the vicinity

of the quartermoon tonight.

Celestial happenstance, the paper

said, and not to reoccur

’til after my body’s dead and gone

back to where it came from.

Infinity, I guess, but then,

I don’t really know.  I have such

trouble with spaces.  Consider

the heavenly bodies.  They seem

to be somehow akin to the organs

packed inside me.  I have no better

idea how far it is from Jupiter

to Mars than from a kidney

to my liver.  And what about

the gall bladder?  Where’s it at

and how long does it take to get

there from thyroid gland or heart?

What’s in between all these places

like Neptune and Uranus,

lung and epiglottis, Saturn

and cerebellum?  Is there a relation

or do I need a chart to find my way

from Mercury to the larynx?

Do I pass my womb on the road

to Jupiter, Venus, and Mars?

Maybe I knew when I was a baby

swimming star in utero,

but I’m outside now and don’t remember

if Pluto is tangent to vagina.

I should ask an ovary, or testicle

if I had one.  Excuse me, please,

but can you tell how far it is

from the cervix to the moon?

When I came down the birth canal

I missed a crucial turn

and lost my sense of distance

in the breech between head and feet.